New Standards Include Critical Provisions Fought for by Worker Advocates

DENVER – National and state economic justice groups across the state are celebrating the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment’s (CDLE) final Colorado Overtime and Minimum Pay Standards (COMPS) released today. Previously known as the Minimum Wage Order, these labor standards that govern worker wages, working conditions, hours and more have not been updated in more than 20 years.

Coalition groups have been working with CDLE to improve these policies and ensure they are in line with the needs of Colorado workers and their families. Thousands of workers made their voices heard throughout the public comment process. Priorities included increasing the overtime threshold, ensuring mandatory breaks for workers, and expanding the industries covered by the order among other priorities.

“This final COMPS Order reflects important progress for hundreds of thousands of workers across Colorado,” said Executive Director of Towards Justice David Seligman. “We are grateful that more salaried workers will gain access to their hard-fought overtime protections sooner under the final rule.”

The new Colorado Overtime and Minimum Pay Standards increases the overtime threshold to $35,568 in July of 2020 and increases it gradually to $55,000 in 2024. Before January of 2020, a salaried employee in Colorado that made more than $23,660 a year was not eligible for overtime. This means these employees did not receive overtime pay even if they were working 10 to 12 hours a day or more than 50 hours a week.

“We commend Governor Polis and CDLE for updating the decades-old Colorado overtime regulations,” said Dennis Dougherty, Executive Director Colorado AFL-CIO. “It was time for Colorado to right past wrongs and make our wage and overtime rules more equitable across gender and races.”

Large majorities of Coloradans have shown support for increasing the overtime wage threshold. A new poll released showed that 77 percent of Coloradans support increasing the Colorado overtime wage threshold to $62,000. Support for the measure included more than 80 percent of Democrats and Unaffiliated voters and more than 60 percent of Republicans.

The new rule also ensures that construction workers, manufacturers, and agriculture workers have access to breaks they have earned and expands wage and working condition protections to thousands of additional workers. Under previous rules the only industries covered were retail and service, health and medical, customer support and food and beverage.

"Centro Humanitario works directly with some of the most marginalized workers in industries where protections are often disregarded,” said Sarah Shikes, Executive Director Centro Humanitario. “Thanks to the recent changes to the Colorado state law, construction workers are now included and eligible for overtime pay and breaks. We will continue to advocate for treating all workers with dignity especially those working in low wage jobs such as agricultural workers. We thank CLDE for their work and increased protections for Colorado workers and look to employers to continue to recognize the value of workers.”